Looking Back on a year of fresh starts.

As we begin the final month of 2024 there’s an upbeat mood around the office. Our out-of-towners are here from Sydney, Melbourne, Auckland and Wellington for planning and to celebrate with us the end of another year at Pathway. Last week we ran a dessert night event for the volunteers and supporters who’ve helped us this year do the work of reintegration. It was a very encouraging evening, hearing from one of our Tu Ora, Pale, about his successful reintegration from prison back into the Christchurch community and learning about his dreams and aspirations for the future. It was a reminder that we cannot do what we do without our many supporters.

On reflection 2024 has been a very good year for us. We have a lot to be thankful for. But it has not been without many challenges. Oak Tree Devanning has almost doubled its volume over the past year! That means more containers devanned but also more staff employed and more opportunities for fresh starts to people with barriers. A lot of the growth has come from our reentry into the Auckland market, not an easy thing to do remotely, but the team has done it! Special thanks to Ops Manager Jamie Dale for his work on this.

Alloyfold has been selected as the seating supplier for the new Christchurch Rugby Stadium “Te Kaha”. This is the result of a lot of hard work by the Alloyfold team over a number of years, but special thanks to our GM Chris Colenso for getting it over the line. There is a lot of hard work ahead in delivering the project, but it is a significant milestone for the business. Alloyfold has seen good growth in its Australian operations and this year opened an office/warehouse location in Weatherill Park, Sydney, to go alongside the Melbourne office which opened a decade ago in Bayswater. There are now five Alloyfold staff across the two locations.

Pathway Affordable Housing completed its second housing development in Pages Road- three 2 bedroom units. We were able to tenant all of these units with Tū Ora and Wāhine from our reintegration programmes, which was very satisfying. Congrats to Matthew Gray for his work on this and to the team for their hard work across all of the units to provide support to our tenants.

On the downside, the economy in NZ is challenging. Alloyfold NZ sales are down significantly and the charitable funding environment is very difficult. There is increasing need in our communities, and a decreasing pool of funding available, and we have seen a marked drop in our financial support through these channels. Our social enterprise model has enabled us to get through, but only just. It has not been easy.

In the following stories you will read about many other ways Pathway is making a difference and we hope you enjoy these stories. We appreciate your support.